Movies

I'm accumulating an uncomfortable backlog of things I need to get watched so I am really buckling down and getting the work done. Recently I have seen Murders in the Zoo (1933) and Doctor X (1932), both starring icily villainous Lionel Atwill, neither of which were worthy of note except for the latter's failure to make full use of its primitive Technicolor. Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) I watched because of the sort of praise Ebert has given it, and found that although there are quite a few naked women in it, and it stars the charismatic William Smith, it didn't get much of a rise out of me. Yesterday I stuck my nose to the grindstone and got four movies watched, starting at 6 pm and ending at 1 am.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) Directed by Bresson, from the comics by Tardi. Globe-trotting adventuress rides pterodactyl through the Paris skies to snatch from the guillotine the only man who can revive the ancient Egyptian mummy who might cure her sister, catatonic with a hatpin through her skull. The re-creation of early 20th century Paris was splendid, and it is a fairly entertaining lite adventure movie that passes the time painlessly. What it cannot capture from the comics is Tardi's heavy line and simple yet dense composition which adds a different kind of intensity from any live action rendition. 6/10

The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) Lushly produced Yellow Peril spectacular - one of the most completely ridiculous things I have ever seen. It must have seemed amazing at the time to see every bit of orientalia they had in the warehouse dragged out and jammed higgledy-piggledy into every scene regardless of race or national origin, along with Turbaned Nubians, atrocious sparking and clattering pseudotechnology, and Karloff and Myrna Loy faking deranged Asianity, bellowing such catchphrases as "Kill the White Men and STEAL THEIR WOMEN!." Most dreadful of all is the final scene in which we are shown what a "Good Chinaman" is - a smirking dimwitted ignoramus in a white jacket. Stupidly and horribly amusing. 6/10

The Girl on the Boat (1962) Starring Norman Wisdom, this is one of the far-too-rare films of a P.G. Wodehouse novel. As such it maintains a certain level of urbanity and wit. Wisdom's more working-class mugging lowers the tone a bit at times but on the whole it is mild and pleasant without being outright hilarious. A really good Wodehouse movie has yet to be made, though the BBC's various treatments have been uniformly charming. 6/10

The Devil-Doll (1936) The hit of the evening, yet another gem I have managed to miss for decades. Lionel Barrymore makes use of a mad scientist's invention to get revenge on the men who destroyed his life. Rafaela Ottiano as the scientist's wife and heir to his madness is outstandingly bizarre as she carries on the dream of one day reducing all living creatures on earth to ONE SIXTH THEIR SIZE. With no will of their own, miniature humans are controlled by Barrymore, by remote mental influence, to carry out his vengeance. The effects, inserting small humans and animals into the scene, are extremely well done considering the technical constraints of the day. Also notable is Barrymore's convincing disguise through most of the film as an old woman. Bizarre in conception and execution, it's exactly why I plow through all that other crap - for a transcendent experience like this. 10/10

We can make the WHOLE WORLD small!!!